21 Year Old
Drinking Age: A Brainless Mandate
by Alex H.
August
18, 2007
I am writing this article as a non-drinker who is calling for sensible
laws that encourage public safety and save lives. As a director
of the National Youth Rights Association, I am writing this article in
support of the right of all Americans to equal protection of the
laws. The minimum drinking age is a form of age-related
discrimination that kills.
The 21 year old drinking age spurs underaged drinking and all the
problems currently associated with drinking. The result is
binge drinking by individuals under 21 who want to participate in the
forbidden fruit. Three out of every four students has consumed
more than a few sips of alcohol by the end of high school.
*1 Even MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) admits that
alcohol is often a rite of passage into college. *2 What good is a law
that 75% disobey?
In Europe and elsewhere, where youth get the right to drink years
before they get the right to drive, drinking problems are dramatically
lessened. Individuals learn to drink responsibly and in
moderation. It is no big deal. In the United States,
this would translate to lowering the drinking age to 14 or lower. In
Portugal and China, there is no minimum drinking age and they
experience few or no problems. *3 Ethnic groups that teach children to
drink responsibly and in moderation have few problems associated with
drinking.*4
Underaged drinking is extra-dangerous because illegal activities are
not typically monitored. Law-breakers generally don't offer to
allow the authorities to monitor their actions while breaking the
law. 28% of 15 to 20 year old drivers killed in motor vehicle
crashes have been drinking. *5 The minimum age didn't save their
lives.
The 21 year old drinking age is no more effective at curbing drinking
below 21 than Prohibition was at ending drinking altogether. The
statistics above show that the drinking age results in drinking by 75%
of indivudals three years younger than the minimum age. Drinking
never stopped during Prohibition. Read F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby to see the
rampant drinking that took place during that period as written about by
someone who lived through it. The result of Prohibition was
increased crime, disrespect for the law and extensive drinking.
Even the father of one of our former Presidents made his fortune as a
bootlegger during that period. The final result from the failure
of Prohibition was the 21st Amendment repealing the disaster.
The biggest casualties of the 21 year old drinking age are those who
get the right to drink at 21 and then binge out, crash and die. Drivers
ages 21 to 24 with blood alcohol levels of .08 or higher make up the
highest percentage of drivers killed in fatal crashes. *6
This is because they suddenly get the right to drink past the age where
they are likely to be supervised while drinking.
This article has not yet touched on the thousands of Americans maimed
in Iraq who cannot drink when they get home. The drinking age
makes no more sense than a voting age that has prevented hundreds of
American servicemen and women from voting in any Presidential election
before they died for their country.
In summary, the drinking age kills. It's time we saved lives by
eliminating or lowering the drinking age. Setting down rules may
make
legislators feel tough. Is feeling tough worth the lives of all
the young Americans killed by a mininum drinking age that encourages
binge drinking? Each legislator will have to look to his or her
conscience to see whether saving thousands of lives each year is worth
the hassle of eliminating or lowering the drinking age.,
*1.
http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/overview2005.pdf;
http://www.sadd.org/stats.htm
*2.
http://www.nationalsafetycommission.com/alerts/archive/2007_02_01_archive.php
*3. http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/YouthIssues/1084209997.html
*4. http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/articles/fruit.html
*5. http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/departments/nrd-30/ncsa/AvailInf.html,
http://www.sadd.org/stats.htm
*6. http://www.alcoholalert.com/drunk-driving-statistics.html